Simon Ray, Chair
After studies at Oxford and teaching in Ghana and the UK, Simon has spent a career working in international development. He has directed UK Department for International Development (DFID) programmes in Africa and Eastern Europe, working with governments, civil society, multilateral institutions and other donors. Over the years, he has helped to develop systems for improved project design, management and assessment and led the launch of the UK Government’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in 2003. Simon has worked in the European Commission in Brussels and was, most recently, on the Board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, an international financial institution that supports projects from central Europe to Central Asia.
Dr. Barbara Profeta
Barbara Profeta has twenty years of overseas experience in humanitarian and development work, across a variety ofpositions and organisations, including the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, the UN family, NGO and private consulting firms. She has been managing offices and programmes in a dozen of different countries on four continents, with a major focus on fragile and conflict-affected environments. Holder of a PhD on International Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, since 2008 Barbara has engaged in programmatic and advocacy work related to the strengthening of distressed health systems and linking research and operations. Barbara is currently working as Senior Health Advisor for Global Programme Health and Eastern Cooperation Domain at the Swiss Development Cooperation agency. She is likewise a board member of the Thematic Working Group on Fragile and Conflict Affected States and an advisory group member of the Private Sector Engagement Thematic Working Group attached to the Health Systems Global research network. Since 2021, she is also an Honorary affiliate at the Institute of Development Studies (UK) and Sussex University.
Richard Holland
Richard joined HealthProm as a Trustee in January 2019. As a solicitor working in the British Overseas Territory of St Helena, Richard helps ensure HealthProm operates on a sound legal footing. Richard has experience working in charity law, including in helping to provide legal support to the operations of a major NGO throughout Africa. He hopes to be able to help HealthProm achieve its goals and fulfil its mission.
Dr Andrew Howe
Andrew started his career as a hospital doctor and General Practitioner. After working for a charity in Afghanistan, he entered into the UK public health system where he has worked as a Director of Public Health in the NHS and in Local Government both in the North West of England and in London. For the last 20 years, as an advocate of population health and wellbeing, Andrew has been leading teams across organisations where the focus of the work has been on the strategic development and delivery of preventative health services and emergency planning.
Dr Joseph Long
Joe has a professional background in academic research and university teaching, having previously worked as a social care practitioner and manager. He is currently Research Manager for Scottish Autism where he is leading a number of collaborative projects focused on improving support practice. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen and Associate Editor of the journal Good Autism Practice. A social anthropologist by discipline, Joe has a longstanding interest in Russia and Inner Asia. He spent several years undertaking field research in Southern Siberia, working mainly within indigenous Buryat communities. He studied at Hull, Cambridge, and Indiana before earning his PhD from the University of Aberdeen in 2010. He was subsequently a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany and has taught at the Universities of Tuebingen and Halle-Wittenburg.
Jim Coleman
In 2022 Jim retired from a 40 year career in financial services and banking during which he held senior positions at NatWest, Lloyds and Nationwide, and was Treasurer of PCF Bank, Sainsbury’s Bank and the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. Jim joined HealthProm as a Trustee and Treasurer in 2023, and in addition is a director of several UK-based businesses and chairs a community interest company. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of St Andrews, has an MBA from Imperial College, and is a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.